A specially trained mobility assistance dog with associated mobility harness, often referred to as a walker dog, is used to assist individuals that have some form of impairment that makes it difficult for them to walk unassisted. The aforementioned impairment is often the result of a birth defect, physical injury, mental injury, or underlying disease such as Parkinson's disease or arthritis. The walker dog is often fitted with a mobility harness that transfers the forces exerted by the human handler into the dog's front shoulders and front legs. By using the dog fitted with the mobility harness as a “portable walker”, the handler gains assistance with balancing, gait, and their ability to ambulate.
Dogs of large stature are used as mobility assistance dogs due to the fact that the mobility harness transfers the forces exerted by the human handler into the dog's front shoulders and front legs. This facilitates the need for a large breed walker dog. The dog's girth and strength are the principal means used to provide stability and assistance to the handler. This is due to the fact that the dog needs to be able to support the handler's weight through its own front legs while additionally providing lateral support should the handler suddenly lose their balance. However, large breed dogs often don't fit well into many living environments. Additionally, about half of existing motion disabilities occur within the geriatric population. This group tends to have increased difficulties in caring for and living with larger breed dogs.
Given current harness designs, mobility assistance dogs require extensive training in paw placement and dog orientation relative to their handler's orientation, position, and gait. It is imperative that the walker dog keep his body parallel to that of the handler while keeping its front paws in perpendicular alignment to the handler. At the same time, the dog needs to be trained to walk when the handler is between strides in order to minimize the possibility of its front paws being out of alignment should the handler lose balance or start to fall. All of the aforementioned training is necessary since the dog must always be in a position to support the handler through its own shoulders and front quarters should the handler lose balance. All of the aforementioned coordination between the handler and the walker dog requires extensive training for the dog by itself, and the dog with the handler. At the same time, the temperament of the dog becomes an important factor in determining if the dog will ultimately be a successful walker dog. Additionally, training the dog to alert the handler to impending dangers such as oncoming traffic can be at odds with the dog's primary function of mobility assistance. This is due to the fact that a traffic danger warning is usually implemented by the dog moving to block the handler from entering the traffic zone which inherently puts the dog out of position relative to the handler for balance assistance. All of the aforementioned results in a dog selection and training regimen that is onerous to the dog and the handler. At the same time, the associated costs and time involved in training a walker dog limits their penetration within the disabled community.
Several different mobility assistance harnesses have been developed that allow for the transfer of forces into the dog's front quarters. As an example, Woerner, U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,363 describes a harness with a base member having a rigid platform covering a portion of the top side and a handle by which the handler's body forces are transferred to the dog's front quarters through the aforementioned platform.
Franck, U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,799 describes a harness that provides an improvement to the harness rigid handle allowing it to change orientation while still remaining rigid. A rigid handle is necessary to provide physical support and psychological assurance to the handler. However, Franck still requires that all forces are directed through the dog's front quarters.
Jenny, U.S. Pat. No. 7,140,326 describes a harness that comprises a rigid handle that is easily removable, via quick release joints. This patent provides an improvement over other rigid handle harnesses by providing for improved ergonomics with an easily removable rigid handle.
Woerner, Franck, and Jenny patents all provide for improvements over the standard rigid handle assistance dog harnesses. However, all of these patents still require that all of the handler's forces are directed through the harnesses into the dog's shoulders and front quarters. What is needed is a harness that is able to overcome the aforementioned limitation of directing all of the handler's forces through the dog's skeletal structure and thereby alleviate the need for a dog of large stature that requires extensive training.